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Title: This Boy's Life: A Memoir
ISBN: 0802136680
Author:
Tobias Wolff
Publicate Date: 2000-03
Publish: 2000-03
List Price: $14.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $4.36
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $3.00
Amazon Merchant Price: $10.17
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Obama Voter
When I encounter a dull book like this one that begs a reader's indulgence but offers nothing in exchange, that bores until the face hurts from yawning, I naturally assume the author is an Obama voter. But wait, now, wait. Let this special brand of author explain in his own words what I mean.
I quote the car-pooler, Toby, "When I see someone being rude to a waiter, or blocking the road in a Ford Expedition, or yakking loudly on a cell phone in a crowded elevator, I naturally assume they voted for George W. Bush." (Observer, Nov 16, 2008) And, in a forgeign newspaper. What a snake.
Toby's goofy comment suggests to me that the author has a mental disorder or, to quote Ford Expedition owners, "there's a screw loose."
But, if you want to be published and celebrated in the US, you have to sell your soul to the devil, which is an easy bargain when you are a self-aggrandizing, soul-poor Liberal like Toby. Or should I say, you have to let the publishing world know you are a party member. I give thanks to the devil for not permitting Toby to write a history textbook.
In begrudging defense of Tobe's syntax, maybe he was referring to Bush voters as sloppy waiters, poor people who can't afford FORD EXPEDITION cars or cell phones and, let's not forget, referring to buyers of books who live in the vast fly over land without need of elevators: 62 million voters who overwhelmingly preferred Bush to the Liberal can. Naaa!
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2: Must read if you saw the movie
I have seen the movie over and over and love it each time. It was great to read the actual events that happen and note what Hollywood produced. If you liked the movie the book is a must!
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3: Stark portrait of life
Generally the type of book you'd read as a school assignment. Very period - in 50's, I think. Sad story of life as the child of a single mom who marries someone she thinks would be adequate father, even though she knew he wouldn't be a good husband. Not so! Somewhat happy ending....recommend reading if you love to read well-written stories, but definately a downer!
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4: Intriguing...
The memoir is intriguing. Any male who reads this can, at some point, relate to the follies, plunders, and disappointments Wolff encounters during his adolescence. It is explicit and candid making for an interesting read.
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5: absorbing and painful with moments of comic relief
I'm about 2/3rds through this, and I find it entirely absorbing. Wolff's writing talent is not in using fancy words or complex forms...just one sentence after another of perfectly pitched prose that feels entirely true and believable. He gains the reader's trust and empathy early on and never loses them, even though, in my case, I wasn't much interested in the details of his somewhat sordid and pathetic early years. I keep asking myself this holds my attention, while most memoirs by people I have a lot more in common with don't. (Not to sound like a snob, but guns, dogs, smoking, drinking, etc. have never been my thing.) I think the reason is that his writing seems entirely transparent, plus you care about him. postscript: I've finished it now and towards the end I was increasingly pained by how f**ked up a person Wolff is--or was. It's troubling and yet the writing is still transparent. You might say he gives us a God's eye view: if there is a force that knows everything and can look at all our failings, faults and mistakes with simultaneous compassion and dispassion, then I think such a Being would write up Wolff's early life in the way he himself wrote it. You get a feeling that there is no self-judging or constrictions and nothing to hide: just the truth, the all too human truth.
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